The Observation Deck

Skindell introduces resolution to amend, fully fund No Child Left Behind Act

COLUMBUS – State Representative Michael J. Skindell, D-Lakewood, has introduced a resolution to the Ohio House of Representatives urging the President and Congress of the United States to appropriate full funding for the No Child Left Behind Act.

The resolution also advocates amending the Act by changing how special education and non-English speakers are tested and counted; and adopting "more equitable requirements" for schools and school districts.

Signed into law in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that by 2014 all states must close the gap in reading and math test scores between children of different races and income levels. Schools are penalized if they miss the testing targets for two consecutive years. Penalties range from allowing students to transfer to higher-scoring schools to providing extra tutoring to facing state takeover.

Critics argue that the law has forced educators to focus almost exclusively on meeting federal testing mandates, undermining existing state education programs and stifling local initiatives.

They have also pushed for more flexibility in required student testing to measure reading and math achievement, saying handicapped students, children with learning disabilities in special education, and those for whom English is a second language cannot keep pace with other students.

“Higher standards and accountability are certainly cardinal objectives, but the road of high-stakes testing is full of potholes,â€Â￾ said Rep. Skindell. “Schools are under a tremendous amount of pressure to raise test scores very fast and teaching to the test is depriving students of a well-rounded education.â€Â￾

“We risk producing a generation of kids who are good at test taking, but little else,â€Â￾ he added.

According to Skindell’s resolution, by fiscal year 2010 the cost to Ohio of complying with NCLB will reach $1.447 billion annually. The resolution contends that President Bush and Congress have failed to fund NCLB in a manner that makes its goals fully attainable. President Bush recently recommended a $7.4 billion dollar reduction in the U.S. Department of Education budget for 2007.

“Inadequate funding for the implementation of NCLB is forcing districts to make something out of nothing,â€Â￾ said Skindell. “A tremendous burden has been placed on already cash-strapped state and localities, creating an almost insurmountable burden.â€Â￾

Since the law went into effect, more than 40 states have considered legislation criticizing NCLB and urging Congress to fully fund the mandate.

It is smart to criticize NCLB.

It is unsmart to ask Congress to to finish funding it.

We should get rid of NCLB.

The Primary shortcoming in American education is that kids are trained to have a poor attention span from an early age.

The solution is to encourage kids who don't want to be in school to drop out by the time they are 16 and do the jobs illegal immigrants are doing.

ryan costa wrote:It is smart to criticize NCLB.

It is unsmart to ask Congress to to finish funding it.

We should get rid of NCLB.

I totally agree with this part. The rest? Not so much.

NCLB is not a tool or a solution. It is a weapon in the wrong hands.

I believe in the concept of No Child Left Behind - so I can't agree with you at all Ryan.

I don't know if you are a father yet, but if you are you will find out that children mature at different times. As a mother I would never allow a school to give up on my children. One of my favorite stories is by Phil Gramm Past Senator from Texas:

Neither of my parents graduated from high school, but my mother had a dream before I was born that I was going to college. I resisted. As some of you know who know me and know a little bit about my history, they kept trying to inoculate me with learning, but it wouldn't take. I failed the third, the seventh, and the ninth grades. But it didn't make any difference. My momma prodded my every step of the way through college to a Ph.D. in economics, because in the America that I grew up in, in the America that you grew up in, mothers' dreams did not die easily. Too many mothers' dreams are dying too easily in America today, and I want our America back.

Now, we can argue all we want about funding, tests and the implementation of NCLB and I think we can find common ground. But as a parent I could not condone not fighting for each and every child. And as a citizen - those children left behind don't do the jobs of illegal aliens, they fill our jails and cost us lots more money in the long run.

I agree with what Mike said about NCLB there needs to be allowances for schools with special needs and foreign speaking students. But those children should not be left behind either. Most of those children;s mothers have dreams too - many came to this country so their children could succeed often at great hardship to them and their family.

JMHO

The idea that all kids should go to college is just dumb. Many jobs that require college degrees only really require a small fraction of the material making up the degree requirements. it is an artificial method of driving up prestige and for professional protectionism.

What is more, it has dumbed down high school education by making it mostly a grazing ground to prepare kids for college.

High school is basically a day care center half the time. The primary problem facing American schools is low attention spans and bad behavior. We spend a premium babysitting and giving remedial college prep training when that money should go to important things like industrial technology and Band.

The troublemakers aren't motivated because the reality of working in agricultural labor isn't real. All that is real is television and the endless mimicry of popular culture. Jails are full of people who'd be better off living out of cities and working on farms: They obviously haven't coped well with growing up in an urban environment. Unless your default definition of an urban environment is a place where very much of the population is loud, vulgar, and stupid. What is more, if Americans are working in factories and farms, we will implicitly desire better standards of compensation and safety. That doesn't mean perfect standards of compensation and safety. It should be perfectly reasonable that a mother of Six children could live to see 2 of them graduating college, 2 of them going into a trade, and 2 of them becoming agricultural or retail labor, whether she is from a lower class or the upper middle class: in such a condition George Bush would be perhaps a moderately successful used car salesman instead of President and a college graduate.

Poverty is a relative condition. Especially in Northern States' metropolitan areas, and the United States in general. If you are committed to the idea that poverty generates crime, there will always be a lot of crime.

Actually, while Ryan could be a bit more tactful, his point is a serious, and troubling, one.

For most of our history, for most of any countrys history, only a fraction of the population went on to "higher education."

Can we really expect our economy to support 300 million MBAs? Do you need a four-year degree to cook a decent breakfast, or even own the restaurant that serves them?

Even if another thing is never again manufactured in America, who WILL pick up the trash, clean the hotel rooms, drive the trucks, carve the sides of beef into steaks? Who will change our diapers and dig our graves?

No one wants illegal immigrants, but no one wants their kid to make beds at a Super 8, either. Can you spell "disconnect"?

The reality is that not everyone was cut out for four years of Hawking, Proust, or Keynes. I know I wasn't. And the problem is, as Ryan could say with a bit more compassion, is that if you're not labeled as "college material," you're ejected into the world without as much knowledge as it takes to balance a checkbook or realize that "Rent To Own" is a total scam.

Lynn Farris wrote:I believe in the concept of No Child Left Behind

Lynn,

I hope you mean that you believe, as I do, in the "concept" of no child left behind, and don't really believe that the program called "No Child Left Behind" really means that. The current administration has initiated many programs like "Clear Skies", "Healthy Forests", and the ridiculous "No Child Left Behind", whose names just seem like cruel sarcasm.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't have the patience to understand a concept that won't fit on a bumper sticker.

If you have really abandoned reason and bought into these programs, well then, it's "Mission Accomplished".

Steve

Steve, you are absolutely right. I believe in the concept - not the implementation.

And Ryan and Joan, I do think that every child should be able to read, write, do math and determine their own destiny. Right now, many cannot. I think they should be able to use computers and balance their own checkbook.

Unfortunately, most of the jobs that don't require much education are being shipped overseas to 3rd world countries or are being done by machines here. So there isn't a big labor market for assembly line workers as their was for our parents. Or clothes manufacturers or even computer programmers.

I greatly admire trades people and farmers as well as those in the service industries.

Trades people today have to be fairly highly educated - as more and more tools are becoming computerized and people have to take courses to keep up with the latest trends. Education is about learning how to learn as well as skills for today.

It is difficult to work your way into farming. The small family farm is becoming a thing of the past - and most non farming kids can't afford to buy a farm. The big industrial farms are either machine oriented - or they are paying wages so low as to be almost slave labor. I was just sent an article about "slave labor" being used on farms today. I'll try to remember to post it.

But the truth of the matter is that for many people making beds at a Super 8 is living below the poverty level - and offers no health care for the family. Yes there is a disconnect. But who wants their child to live in poverty with an inability to pay for health care if they get sick when they are working hard 40+ hours a week ? Not any mother's dream for their children that I know. Maybe we need to do something about that - minimum wage and National health care - but that too is a different thread.

I think we often give up on children too early and pigeon hole them before they have the chance to mature and hit their stride. And tests (yes - we are getting back to NCLB) do not do a good job at determining a child's potential. But if they point out that a child is having difficulty reading - then maybe some early intervention can help.

I think a college education today is what a high school education was for our parents. If not, America is going to be behind many of the countries that are challenging us.

What countries are "challenging" us and how? Odds are the answer to this is further justification for everything I recommended previously.

Lynn.

Maybe we're talking about two different issues. On one hand, there's hope and the American dream and on the other hand there is the nasty reality of numbers.

Of course, we would all rather our daughters and sons be CEOs than Super 8 chambermaids. But the CEO section in the 'Help Wanted" ads is limited. And if every American refuses to allow their child the ignominy of a Super 8 job, who the heck is going to do it?

I don't disagree with NCLB, although the politicians have rendered it pretty much useless (nuke it and start over). I agree with basic math and reading proficiency should be expected for every child.

But I also don't agree with tormenting a child through 12 years of calculus, physics, etc, having him squeak through on a suspect diploma (nobody really "flunks out" anymore), take a semester of something at Tri-C, and then wind up at Lube Stop anyway.

Remember the old "Taxi" series? The Judd Hirsch character introduces his fellow cabbies to a newbie. "This guy drives a cab, but he's really an actor. That one's a boxer. This one wants to run an art gallery. Me, I'm just a cab driver. I'm the only cab driver here."

For years, Europeans have made the cruel but necessary choice of deciding in the mid-teen years who goes on to "university" and who gets a more practical type of education. Even so, the Europeans have stopped having children and now rely on immigrants to do THEIR manual labor.

It's a numbers game. Uncomfortable as we are in saying that some children's future may not be all that we would hope for, that reality is going to rear its ugly head sooner or later (or, actually, right now)

Joan Roberts wrote:Lynn.

For years, Europeans have made the cruel but necessary choice of deciding in the mid-teen years who goes on to "university" and who gets a more practical type of education. Even so, the Europeans have stopped having children and now rely on immigrants to do THEIR manual labor.

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That seems like an over-generalization. Except maybe for France. the Europeans have lower birth rates because they are reasonable about population growth and the responsibility of taking care of children. Most labor is still done by Europeans. Except France. The influx of immigrants is a combination of Colonial Guilt and former colonies and nearby third world nations experiencing unlimited population growth. It is simple diffusion.

Here is the first book voters should read before listening to any Candidates talk about education reform. It is by Clifford Stoll. Frank Zappa's opinions and practices are also very useful.

ryan costa wrote:The solution is to encourage kids who don't want to be in school to drop out by the time they are 16 and do the jobs illegal immigrants are doing.

So they can grow up and live in Section 8 apartments in Lakewood!

usually they live in barracks on the ranch or farm. At least, that is how it is in reruns of The Big Valley and Bonanza. And at Cedar Point.

Fortunately there are no farms in lakewood, so you won't have to worry about them living here. Maybe the ones who lose limbs will qualify for Section 8 benefits.

But, as I said before, the idea that Class is a function of materialism more so than behavior means there will always be excess crime and nuisance. Because poverty is all relative: Poor people here are usually ridiculously wealthy compared to the average Mexican or Chinese in Mexico and China.

Yesterday's Plain Dealer suggested shipping Section 8s out to the outer suburbs. This is a dumb idea: the suburbs require a car to obtain every single good and service. If they are too poor to afford apartments, the odds are they have even less money for a car, automobile insurance, and gasoline.

ryan costa wrote:Yesterday's Plain Dealer suggested shipping Section 8s out to the outer suburbs. This is a dumb idea: the suburbs require a car to obtain every single good and service. If they are too poor to afford apartments, the odds are they have even less money for a car, automobile insurance, and gasoline.

When I was a kid, my Mother would require that I finish all my vegetables before I could leave the dinner table. Almost every time, I would try spreading the vegetables around on the plate to make it appear as though I had eaten them. It never worked. Cleveland needs to eat their vegetables.

When I was a kid, my Mother would require that I finish all my vegetables before I could leave the dinner table. Almost every time, I would try spreading the vegetables around on the plate to make it appear as though I had eaten them. It never worked. Cleveland needs to eat their vegetables

I had friend who threw his string beans behind the buffet.....no one was the wiser, he got to out and play, and it wasn't until they moved and loaded up the buffet that anyone figured it out.....therein ends the alternative message....

Jeff